I can’t imagine my life as Mrs. David Squier nor mother to Emily, Betsy Boop and Naphtalie without the radio broadcasts of Dr. James Dobson, America’s family counselor. How many of us were empowered in our quest to become Godly men and women, husbands and wives and Godly parents – thanks to Dr. Dobson’s daily interviews of people of faith in all walks of life? All the kids in Portola Valley, California knew silence was enforced at the Squier House twice a day – first for Dr. Dobson and then for Paul Harvey.

But then one day about three years ago Jim Dobson disappeared. Tuning into Focus on the Family, I discovered another Jim was broadcasting in his place.

I’m happy to report Dr. Dobson has been found. We saw him alive and well, stronger than ever, as David and I joined 40 other couples for a Valentine’s weekend in Palm Springs, California. The event was hosted by the entire Dobson family and the staff for a ministry called FamilyTalk, which was birthed the day after Focus on the Family retired their founder in 2010.

FamilyTalk airs throughout the week for half hour interviews and is hosted by Dr. Dobson (www.drjamesdobson.org) and co-hosted by his son Ryan and Luanne Crane. The program can be found on 1100 stations throughout the country. (Check the above website) If your town doesn’t yet carry it, you can listen by downloading from Dr. Dobson’s website and click on BROADCASTS (top middle of the screen).

In addition to the beloved radio programs, Dr. Dobson and his staff are tackling the formidable assignment of converting his 40 years of timeless wisdom into the largest, searchable library of family resources ever created using today’s technology. Our computer-savvy children and grandchildren will soon be able to access sound Judeo Christian answers to their endless questions about marriage, family and culture.

Furthermore FamilyTalk expects to complete a brand new eight part film series in 2013 called Building a Family Legacy. Who of us doesn’t remember the Turn Your Hearts Toward Home series in the 80’s, which was viewed by eighty million Americans, one third of the population in the United States?

​One more thing: Be sure and get your copy of Dr. Dobson and co-author Kurt Bruner’s first book in a three part series: Fatherless is a novel which vividly imagines a future thirty years down the road in which present-day cultural trends come to sinister fruition. Chapter One is a grabber as we read about the young disabled man being transitioned (a euphemism for euthanized). Why? To relieve his family and his society of any physical, emotional and financial burden. OUCH!Fatherless is available in bookstores now or on the Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LSU3Qw

• Childless will be released in the fall of 2013
• Godless is expected in bookstores the summer of 2013.

​The Squiers left the conference inspired anew by 77 year old Dr. Dobson and his undying commitment to America’s families and to the Judeo-Christian foundation on which our nation was built.

We want to add our names and our resources as one of the 10,000,000 families who FamilyTalk seeks to impact in the next 1000 days.

Now that you, too, know where Dr. Dobson is, here is his contact information if you desire to companion with him to strengthen crumbling marriages, provide resources for stressed families, to speak into our declining culture, to spread the life-changing and nation-changing gospel of Jesus Christ:

Dr. James Dobson’s FamilyTalk,
540 Elkton Drive, Suite 201
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
Phone: 877.732.6825

​I post the following video clip to dispel any remnant myth that I am a Woman of Courage. Judy on the Slope is what my dear husband David put as a caption for my ride down the snow-covered hill in front of our home. Sweet that he didn’t caption it – My Dear Wife Screameth Yet Again.

My January, 2013 ride on the slope resulted when our son-in-law, Beau, decided two year old Luka and four year old Brianna needed to experience a ride on the snow. Watching them bravely and silently ride down our hill, I decided Granny Goose should join the fun. Fun? Fun when it ended, that is, but as you can see the downhill ride pushed this Old Goose’s fear button.

Those who know me well know I begin new situations with fear – until Jesus shows up. Then He and I do things I’d never sign up for – like motherhood, like mission trips to third-world countries, like writing a book, like finishing another book in 2013.

I always say Hannah Hurnard’s classic Hind’s Feet on High Places is the story of my life. Much Afraid and I share not only a disability, but a lack of courage. But fortunately we share the Good Shepherd – her Shepherd is my Shepherd and He manages to get each of us to the high places.

2013 will be filled with unknowns for all of us. My friend Shirley and I had mammograms two weeks ago and she’s scheduled for a double mastectomy. Please pray for her.

Fortunately God limits our vision to the present moment so we don’t know in advance what fearsome surprise tomorrow will bring. I’m told there are more than 365 Bible verses to battle fear – one for every day of the year. I’ve yet to find them all and until I do I’ll just keep screaming when life gets scary knowing that I can count on Jesus to show up to rescue me. And when He does, His presence alone will quiet me as His courage kicks in. His courage you know is big enough for all of us. So Much Afraid Squier is thanking Him in advance for His presence every day of this new year for me and for you.

PS Scream if you must. It sets people free to be real.

​After 33 years of the Squier Christmas photo cards, our Thanksgiving photo shoot was pre-empted by the birth of a new grandson, Nico Christian. Yes, Elizabeth and Beau are busy parents and Granny Goose (Judy) and Pops (David) love having their family nearby. We see our other daughters and their spouses during frequent trips to the SF Bay Area. And in between Judy is busy writing another book while David catches up on some of the things he missed during 40 years at Lockheed.

Above photo from left to right: Judy, David, Emily, Jeremy, Beau & Elizabeth with Luka, Brianna, and a newborn Nico, Naphy & Andrew.

​ Celebrating 2 Births in 2012 – Nico & Jesus!

Topping the Squier’s Thank You list is what our Savior Jesus accomplished on the old rugged cross! Our sins’s crimson stain, He Washed white as snow. . .

Happy Thanksgiving from the Squier Family!

Regarding the photo: David added the cross to the Sheep’s Rest landscape last year at Judy’s request. Amy Mayfield caught the picture with the red leaves flowing down like Christ’s crimson blood! What a Savior!

Elisabeth Elliot has a special place in my heart. Ever since a women’s retreat in the 80’s, where she was the keynote speaker and I did a workshop. At dinner she chose a seat next to me and so began our fast friendship.
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Elisabeth was one of the few people I’ve met who asked about my disability. Placing her hand on my artificial limb, she queried: Tell me what happened?

Subsequently she has had a story about our meeting in several of her books, her March/April 1989 newsletter and on numerous radio broadcasts:

There Are No Accidents
Author: Elisabeth Elliot

– Judy’s letter to the Scott Family in 1988 –

~ ~ ~

​I think of Elisabeth so often, remembering how she had so much to do as a conference speaker, an author, upholder of the Biblical world view throughout the world; she had her radio broadcast, her family, how did she do all that had to be done?

She shared her secret with me in a tract containing one of her favorite poems, one she made famous. I dedicate Elisabeth’s poem to All my busy friends, who like me aren’t sure what to do first on our bursting-at-the-seams schedules:
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Do the Next Thing
Author Unknown
(A poem quoted by Elisabeth Elliot)

“At an old English parsonage down by the sea,
there came in the twilight a message to me.
Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven that,
as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.

And all through the hours the quiet words ring,
like a low inspiration, ‘Do the next thing.’
Many a questioning, many a fear,
many a doubt hath its quieting here.

Moment by moment, let down from heaven,
time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,
trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,
do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,
who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
leave all resultings, do the next thing.
Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
working or suffering be thy demeanor,
in His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
the light of His countenance, be thy psalm.
Do the next thing.”

My 2012 highlight just occurred at a Joni Camp on the Oregon Coast. I was scheduled to do my usual – lead the Woman-to-Woman support groups – but God promoted me to the role of main speaker when the camp pastor took ill the last minute.
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What a privilege to give the three morning talks to 30 battle-weary families slammed by disability. I couldn’t help but think, where, oh where was a Joni and Friends family retreat in the 50’s when my family desperately needed relief?

As I spoke, I looked heavenward longing to tell my parents that:
– Our suffering was not wasted
– God kept His promise in Jeremiah 29:11
– His plan for my life – disability and all – was for good and not for disaster
– Low & behold, my life has become living proof to others of God’s future and hope

My deformed left hand stole the show preaching its now-revered, three-point sermon. Further proof that God transforms our broken places into Holy Ground.

Indeed Jesus showed up at Rockaway Beach, Oregon – in broken bodies, broken families, broken hearts and broken dreams. Why wouldn’t He? Wasn’t He broken so that He could make the dastardly holes in our lives, HOLY?

Heaven orchestrates an audible and inaudible chorus at Joni Camps throughout the world.

Holy, Holy, Holy reverberates as one beholds:

• a devoted mom cradling the love of her life – her treasured child with Downs syndrome
• a short-term-missionary (STM) teenager jumping in to feed his/her assigned camper giving the parents a much needed break
• wheelchair-riders of all ages square-dancing to their hearts delight
•  the severely disabled and their families bringing down the roof in a 2 ½ hour long talent show

Heroes are ubiquitous at Joni Camp. Stockpiling their courage supplies the strength we all need to survive until next year’s family retreat. I’m savoring the memory of:
Angel –a gutsy, fear-filled tween (not quite a teenager) who announced that she came to camp to make fear walk the plank.
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Three of us who formed an Amputee Club to celebrate the fact that Jesus grows those without limbs –  spiritual limbs.

Ben, a 1st time STM, who was challenged by a teen camper who was in constant motion. After the families left, I asked Ben, “Are you relieved to be off duty?” Ben’s duo-reply summarized the wonder of Joni Camp: “I miss my camper and I’m going to ask to be his STM again next year.”

And then there’s Joni, the woman God used to redeem disability’s landscape around the world. July 30, 2012 marked the 45th anniversary of her dive into Chesapeake Bay, resulting in forty-five years of quadriplegia to date.  Anniversary, one might ask, does such a crisis deserve the blessed word anniversary?

You have to come to a Joni Camp to see for yourself. To see with your own eyes why Joni and the thousands of families impacted by her life would say YES.

By the way, it’s not too early to consider attending a Joni Camp as a family or volunteering as an in 2013. Check into it: (www.joniandfriends.org)
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A final word of advice from this veteran camper, who attended my first Joni camp in the early nineties with our three daughters

DON’T FORGET YOUR SUNGLASSES,
or do I mean SONGLASSES?

Be forewarned: you are going to have to wear them 24/7 even on our overcast Oregon Coast. WHY? Because Jesus shines blindingly bright in the broken of body, mind and spirit – who the world overlooks – but who are His Stars at Joni Camps around the world.

WRITING does not come easy for me. I am not a born writer. I write and rewrite and rewrite sometimes a dozen times until it finally ZINGS!
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If writing is hard work for me, why do I do it? The following quote by Madeleine L’Engle explains why I write.

Collaborate, according to my Roget’s Super Thesaurus means: work together, team up, coauthor, join forces. So I collaborate with the book but also with Elohim, the Creator God.

The Creator God is very much a part of my writing. He’s ultimately the Author while I click the keys on the keyboard. He gets me to my desk on days when I’d rather not. He’s the Finisher of each and every story that I work on so that after umpteen rewrites, when I read the finished work, I feel His Pleasure.

Though not a born writer, I realize I have always found great pleasure in words. I have filled journals with words from the early age of ten. At age thirteen, my Dad helped me select the right words for my first public speech. For a decade I worked as a speech pathologist helping children with delayed speech and language development and adults who’d had strokes learn to say words. My favorite book after the Bible is my Roget’s Super Thesaurus.

Words pepper the walls, counters and shelves of our home in southern Oregon. Plaques fill the empty space above many of our doors. I recently counted 17 words or quotes in one room. Two quotes stand out among many in my office: For This I Have Jesus and Do Something to Crow About.

Words and writing have served me well giving me an opportunity to live experiences a second time. As I relive life by writing my life stories I often hear myself say: Lord, You were with me even then, weren’t You? Writing enables me to see Jesus in the rear view mirror.

But mastering the craft of writing has been a long haul: fifteen to twenty years of writing classes and writers’ conferences with too-many-to-count rejections from book and magazine editors with only a splattering of memorable moments to prevent me from giving up.

I remember the night I read Twenty-Four Karat Miracle (now a chapter in His Majesty in Brokenness) in an adult education writing class at Palo Alto High School. As I finished reading, one of the other senior citizen students jumped out of her seat and shouted, “Judy, you’ve got a book in your belly.”

She was right. The book in my belly was published in August 2010. I thank the Lord for leading me to Createspace.com for a painless experience of self-publishing. The Createspace support staff held three Squier’s hands (Judy’s, David’s and daughter Naphtalie’s) and lead us along the path to finalizing the manuscript so that they could provide their top quality print on demand product.

Not only do I recommend them I am ready to use them again. All year I have busied myself with book number two – His Majesty and Me is my working title. The stories will convey my love affair with God, through His Hebrew names, including El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Shalom and fifteen others. My prayer and goal is to send the PDF of the manuscript to Createspace by December 31, 2012. For this I have Jesus!

HOW ABOUT YOU?
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What challenge is staring you in the face?
What is too big for you to pull off on your own?
Is someone you love overwhelmed?

I have a Bible verse for us all – a verse God gave me during final week in college. (I know He gave it to me because to this day I still have trouble finding Habakkuk in my Bible.)

Habakkuk 3:19 (Amplified Bible) reminds me Who to put in charge of life’s IMPOSSIBLE assignments. I have crowned Him my Author and Finisher for my current writing endeavor. What do you need to hand over to Him right now?

The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery, my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror but to walk) and make spiritual progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering and responsibility)!

Just wanted to make a special announcement:
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His Majesty in Brokenness is now available as an eBook on Amazon for $3.99.
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You can purchase it here.

More and more the theology of God’s astonishing wonders has become autobiography for me. No longer am I the little crippled girl excluded from life. God moved me from the lonely sidelines to center stage for life experiences I never believed possible.
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On April 25th David and I flew to San Antonio, Texas where I spoke at a fundraiser for Becky’s Hope ministry (www.beckyshope.org). Max Lucado did the keynote speech and I followed him with the heart of the ministry talk.

This refrain encouraged him when the other sheep journeyed to far away places and he was left him out.

But God’s wonders never cease: Thanks to his deformed leg the crippled lamb was center stage in the stable the night Jesus, the Lamb of God was born.

The crippled lamb’s story is my story!

That’s what I told the audience at the fundraiser. Being left out was the bane of my growing up years. Not just my bane but also the Becky of Becky’s Hope bane, due to her spina bifida. Yes, we both sat and watched our siblings have all the fun, BUT GOD.

But God has a special place and big plans for those who feel left out. Thanks to our being left out , both Becky and I we were ushered in to a forever relationship with the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

And in Becky’s life, thanks to her disability, Becky and her Romanian-born parents are God’s instrument to spread the hope of Christ throughout Romania to moms with disabled children and adults. In Romania a heavy spirit of oppression keeps crippled lambs behind closed doors –a condition which the Opreans are changing through nearly a decade of Christian retreats.
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I was privileged to teach and minister with Becky’s Hope in Romanian towns in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

Now I am privileged to share my life-changing, cliff-hanger experiences at their fundraisers here in America.
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This 2012 fundraiser was over the top! Experiencing Max Lucado up close was a thrill of a lifetime. His story-telling teaching style makes me want to be a wordsmith like Max when I grow up.

Enjoying San Antonio’s annual fiesta and strolls/rolls along the River Walk, David and I were joined by my sister, Tina, and my niece, Christie. Like her Aunt Judy, Christie is a crippled lamb. Christie’s disability is blindness and she knows first hand how it feels to be left out. But now an adult, she’s a lamb you don’t want to leave behind, because even without vision she’s turned into the family’s GPS. She’s living proof of God’s power made perfect in human weakness.
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What about You? In what arena do you find yourself repeatedly left out? Maybe you are like me – you feel you were born to lead life’s parade, but you find yourself velcroed to a seat on the sidelines.

My advice to you: Don’t be sad, Little Lamb, look Who’s sitting beside you. It’s the God Who companions with us on the sidelines and in His time He gives us the spot we always longed for in life’s parade.

Prepare yourself to be: Astonished! Astounded! For He is going to do something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.

His Majesty and I have enjoyed amazing opportunities since my book His Majesty in Brokenness was published in August 2010. Book signings have felt like a warm hug from supportive friends and family. Tea parties, Christian Women’s Club talks, Broken and Beautiful retreats have all provided an opportunity to tell audiences to keep their eyes peeled for Jesus in their broken places.

Most recently Donna Schmid, the founder of Grants Pass’ Pathway to Authenticity contacted me wanting to do a short documentary on my life. She’s a motivational coach, a hypnotherapist and a massage therapist who helps people become connected body, mind and spirit.

In a phone conversation ahead of time, she asked, me, “Judy, what’s the one thing you would like to tell our viewers?” My immediate response that “I’d like to tell them we are all broken,” resulted in a long silence.

Finally Donna communicated, “I don’t think we are all broken.” Hmmm. Might a synonym help? No. She preferred the word victorious.

I suggested maybe she wanted to retract her invitation to me since our philosophies were polar opposites. No, she wanted to ponder brokenness and she’d call me back later.

Six hours later, an excited Donna greeted me. She related how after hanging up she went to visit her father-in-law at the local memory loss facility. Like never before she was struck by his broken speech and the many broken residents. Yes, she could now agree with my premise about universal brokenness.

I praised her for her amazing 180; she shared more about her new discovery; then we picked a date for the filming. Recording it on my calendar, I realized the documentary would happen on Good Friday.

“Donna,” I wrote in an email, “speaking of brokenness, did you realize we are scheduled to meet on Good Friday? It’s the day in history when God Himself became broken so He could heal us and set us free.”

Her email back simply said, “WOW!”

Wow is more and more my response as I watch His Majesty fling open doors of opportunity. But He’s no longer limiting it to doors. He’s expanding his job description to bridge building. When Donna and I hit the wall between us, His Majesty built a bridge.

Together we thank Him because we are both enjoying a friendship that might not have happened.